With a deep orange coat, long, dark legs and sizable, white and fluffy ears, he looks like a cross between a fox and a coyote. He’s about 3 feet tall, making him one of the tallest of his species.
The maned wolf is a unique animal in the canid species, and earlier this month, the Louisville Zoo welcomed a 6-year-old male named Chrys to his new home.
Their last maned wolf died last year, and now Louisville Zoo officials say they’re excited to have the species back in Louisville. Chrys has settled into his new enclosure, and the zoo is developing plans to monitor his diet, learn more about his species and — eventually — raise pups.
Despite their name, maned wolves are not the wolves you may be picturing. They’re their own species of canid, which are in the same family as wolves, foxes and dogs. Their name comes from the dark tuft of hair over their shoulders and back.
Maned wolves originated in South America near Brazil, Peru and Argentina. Their taller frames, relatively speaking, allow them to peer over tall grass in search of food. Maned wolves are omnivores, meaning they eat plants as well as other animals. But they typically eat smaller animals such as mice, according to the Louisville Zoo’s assistant director of conservation, education, and collections, Steven Taylor.
Zoo nutritionists learned a balanced diet for maned wolves is incredibly important, Taylor said.
“There are some unique plants in South America that just don't grow up in the northern hemisphere,” he said. “And so we have to look for other things to try to make this diet.”
On a rainy Friday afternoon, zookeeper Cynthia Burger met Chrys at the front corner of his enclosure. She carried a small bucket of trout fish tails, some of which were stuffed with mice.
While this was protein-heavy, Burger said Chrys typically gets “meatballs” made of fish, mice, fruits and vegetables. Keeping his diet balanced helps prevent urinary problems, Burger said.
She said Chrys is most active in the early mornings and afternoons. Visitors are most likely to observe him hunting, Burger said. He often scours his area searching for moles and voles burrowed under the grass and dirt.
“His personality is amazing,” Burger said. “He is incredibly intelligent. He is incredibly nosy. He will sometimes act like he's not paying attention, but he misses nothing. He knows everything.”
Burger said to mind the smell near his enclosure. The odor, which Burger said is similar to marijuana or a skunk, is Chrys marking his territory.
“When you are an animal that lives by yourself, and you don't have a pack to protect you, and you have a territory, you want [other animals] to know, ‘Hey, this is my territory,” she said “It's just like when you take your dog out for a walk and he pees on everything.”
Chrys wanders around an enclosure that many maned wolves before him have explored.
The Louisville Zoo has kept maned wolves since the 1980s. Last year, the zoo’s last maned wolf Sadie died. In her honor, zoo nutritionists named its maned wolf diet “Sadie’s Stew.” Now, the specialized diet is used in several zoos in North America.
“Most people don't realize that's what a lot of the work that we do in zoos,” Taylor said, who has worked with maned wolves for almost four decades. “We do a lot of research trying to help support the population. And then a lot of the research we do, in many cases, can be taken out to help those species in their wild habitat.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists maned wolves as a “nearly threatened” species. In Brazil, maned wolves are “vulnerable” species, and Taylor said there is a growing threat to these animals as urbanization grows in parts of South America.
“This is a species that can't take lots of disturbance, as opposed to coyotes,” Taylor said.
In Louisville, the zoo is working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to find a female for Chrys in hopes that they’ll have pups. The last time that happened was in 2017, according to a zoo spokesperson.
For now, zookeepers are planning what to give Chrys for his first birthday in his new home. On Thanksgiving Day, Chrys will turn 7, and Burger said she has a gift idea in mind.
“He is really good about playing with interactive stuff,” she said. “So we'll probably put something in a box and let him open it and rip it up.”
The zoo is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until March 20. After that, it’ll be open until 5 p.m. through Sept. 20.
